Customer Reviews

E315 Celluar Phone

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I used the Customer Reviews on Amazon to research phones and cel service. Now that I have a new phone and plan, I thought I should do my bit for the next person ... so here goes ...

First, thanks to all who contributed before me. Your reviews were extremely helpful in helping me make my choices.

After reading the reviews I went down to the T-Mobile store in Portland OR (Washington Square) to physically check out the phones, fully intending to come back and buy from Amazon. However, I ended up buying from the T-Mobile store instead. More on that later.

I was originally looking at a Nokia 6600 or 3650 but decided on the E315 after inspecting the devices.

My major reasons for skipping the Nokia's were their size and the keyboards. In spite of the Nokia's "huge" size and large keys, the key are just too close (read flush with each other)so it is too easy to press the wrong key.

My reason for selecting the E315 was it's small size and the fact that it is very easy to setup and use. That was my number one consideration. Does it work well as a basic phone? The answer is a resounding Yes.

The E315 does not have bluetooth or speakerphone - neither was a consideration for me.

However, even though the E315 has no speakerphone, you can turn the volume up pretty high ... high enough that I can place the phone on my desk and still hear what the caller is saying. Also the mike on the phone picks up what I am saying very well from this distance, so I end up having a "virtual" speakerphone any way

Video and still pictures are suprisingly good. Have not figured out how to download/upload pictures or video yet. I suspect I will have to buy a cable and download the Samsung SW or buy some other package. Will investigate this one day but it is not a priority.

I did not sign up for any of the T Mobile services that would allow me to email/transfer images from the phone etc. through them because I dont think I will be doing too much of that.

(...)
I also liked the ability to come back and talk to someone face-to-face in the store, in case there were problems. Once you purchase the plan/phone, you have 14 days to come back and cancel, or change. I did that twice and had no problems. No-restocking fee nothing. The people in the store were great.

I like the way this whole T-Mobile experience has started, and hope it continues.

Finally with respect to signal strength and coverage. I don't notice any apprecialble difference between T-Mobile and Cingular ..... at least in the Portland downtown and West Hills area.

I really like this phone, and had done a ton of research to make sure I would choose the right phone...I did and I'm glad I bought the e315 (bought it directly from TMobile at $25, they told me I would have problems changing contracts (i.e if I want to change plans) if I went through Amazon. I now think that this was a lie, but either way the phone was cheap.

In regards to all the comments/complaints of other reviewers, here's what I have to say about the phone's features:

- phone book is a bit hard to use (I used to have a Nokia so enough said), but it's not that bad, and I don't enter new contacts every day.

- you can't really have vibrate and ringer together. There is an option called 'vibra+melody', but it only starts ringing maybe 10 seconds after it vibrates, I prefer both at the same time so I don't miss the call. Plus you don't get text message alerts if you choose this option. No big deal, but I liked this feature on my other phone.

- love the small size of the phone and that it's a flip, and the camera and display resolution/colors are really nice! I love the camera, it works very well, and love the fact that you can also take a picture from the outside display (and have pics as caller ID).

- Overall a great phone with lots of features, yet not too complicated. I didn't see any other flaws with it, it's a great choice, you won't regret it.

Regarding the Tmobile service (I'm in San Francisco/bay area), it's not as good as my Nokia/Sprint combo, but it still works very well.

I had been waiting for this phone to come out because most of the camera phones on the market are either too heavy or big, even though they have very good features. This phone has almost all features as the other ones and it almost as light as the 'non-camera' one (E105). i can't feel it at all after i put it in my jeans pocket.

It's been working nicely since I got it and I was surprised by all the bad reviews shown here on amazon. the last person talked about how difficult it is to add a number to an already existing entry. I just did that this morning without looking at the phone manual and i had no problem at all. (And also I dont really have too much experience on different cell phones and therefore adding new entries shouldn't be a problem for most of the people.)

Besides the light weight and tiny size, it also has a camera that can take both pictures and videos (of course with not very high quality) but for the money i spent i think the camera works pretty good. (it's just some cool stuff coming with the phone for you to play with, if you want to take great picture you might as well get a digital camera, right?) one bad thing about the camera is that the shutter sound cannot be turned off. (i read through the manual and i could not find a way to disable it so i assume it can't be done. please let me know if any of you can turn it off)

either as a cell phone or something that you could play around while connecting with your friends at the same time, samsung E315 does a great job. it surely worths the price and can definitely complete its tasks.

(by the way the service light is very cute)

I've been using the Samsung e315 phone for about a week and a half now, and am very happy with it so far. After deciding on the T-Mobile service, and that I wanted a flip phone, I was comparing this phone with the Motorola v300, v600, and the Samsung e715. It seems that this phone is smaller and lighter than the Motorola phones, and that it gets far better user reviews, so I decided to rule them out. The e715 looked tempting for a while until I read all the bad reviews about its screen dying after 6 months of usage. It seems that this phone is the best flip phone choice currently offered by T-Mobile, although the e730 when it comes out in a few months will probably be better.

This phone sounds *almost* as good to me as a landline phone; it's quite pleasant to use for long conversations.

Pros:
- very lightweight.
- very small, fits in pocket easily.
- good sound quality, crisp and clear.
- easy to use keypad and predictive text input.
- low SAR rating so it won't fry your brain.
- instant messenger built in - works very well
- comes with a nice selection of ringtones, message tones, etc.
- optional service light on front of phone blinks to show coverage - handy when in spotty areas.
- external screen so you can see who's calling without opening phone.
- photo caller id option, show's a picture of your caller.
- seems well built.
- attractive design, aesthetically pleasing.
- allows you to assign different ring tones to different groups of people, or to different people.

Cons:
- no speakerphone option.
- no bluetooth.
- computer connection kit is very expensive and doesn't work with iSync on Mac OS X.
- no speech activated dialing.
- headset plug appears to be non-universal type, so it might be harder to get third party headsets for it.
- no built in support for sending email (that I could find, this may be wrong).

All in all, highly recommended.

I had an E105 before the E315. Overall, both phones are easy to use, sturdy and reliable.

This is my first camera phone so I'm enjoying that new toy. I like the photo caller ID which even works on the external display.

I guess it's easier to focus on what I'd like to see improved. The shutter sound when you take a picture is awfully loud, and there's no way (as far as I know) to turn it down/off. The built in rings on this phone are pretty bad (though there are a couple that were better than on the E105). Speaking of the E105, it had a display brightness setting you could change to increase battery life. The E315 apparently lacks this setting so the display is always at its brightest (though it does look good that way). I'd also like to see voice dialing, a speaker phone and Bluetooth features.

I'd really like to sync this phone with my Outlook contacts, but it is way expensive to buy that cable and software so I won't be doing so any time soon. The E315 comes with a charger, and hand-free ear piece, but omits the belt clip that came with my E105 (which doesn't fit on the 315).

Contrary to what others have said, you can use groups so that you can assign group rings. Not only that, but you can assign different SMS tones to the groups.

I haven't had it long enough to speak about battery life, but it shouldn't be too bad. My E105 lasted several days in stand by if I didn't talk to anybody, and at least a couple of days if I did use it.

I carefully studied all my options when selecting this phone. I was first drawn to it because it is so cute, but that's no reason to buy something. After comparing the features of a number of T-Mobile phones, I came back to this one. I got it in the mail three days ago, and it's clear that it's perfect for me.

First, as a phone, it works well. The ringer, even on the lowest volume setting, is still pretty loud. There is no speaker phone, but it's not really necessary as there is a hands-free headset included with the phone. I haven't had any problems with sound quality.

The camera is very cool. It has some cute effects, like sepia and negative colors, as well as some fun borders for pictures. The pictures can be taken in a number of sizes (up to 640 by 480 pixels.) Pictures can be used for picture caller ID (I really dig gimmicks like that) which also displays on the external color screen. Pictures can also be sent in messages to email addresses, so you don't need any cables to put them onto your computer.

The picture quality on the computer is about the same as a mid-quality webcam picture. It's not crystal clear, but not too fuzzy either.

The phone comes with a few full-color java games, which aren't bad, and the opportunity to download more games. The included ring tones aren't spectacular, but again you can download more, and the sound quality is pretty good on those.

The phone has both AIM and ICQ on it, so you can instant message people while you're on the go. It's not an entirely practical feature, but it's nifty.

This phone also has "T-Zones" which I haven't explored much yet. One can use it to get movie times and weather reports, as well as download ring tones, wallpapers and games.

The phone also has an organizer with a calendar, calculator and to-do list.

I notice that many of the negative issues mentioned by other reviewers are covered in the user manual. The predictive text input (t9) allows the user to add words to the dictionary (a very convenient feature that wasn't present in my old Samsung r225.) If the word you wish to type is not offered by the dictionary, the left soft key will have the "add" option so that you can type the word and it will save in the dictionary.

The phone also has pretty good battery life, considering how much I've been playing with the camera over the past few days since I received it.

The only negative aspects of this phone for me, are:
-the ringer is still pretty loud on the lowest setting
-the wallpaper on the small external screen is limited to the four choices that come with the phone: blue, light blue, green and purple.

I will just give you a brief overview.

1. Great design and feels awesome.
2. Easy to use.
3. Good camera and has capability of taking pictures of yourself (like when the cell is closed).
4. Poor video (but who really needs it)
5. VERY good battery life.
6. Excellent sound quality.
7. Sometimes if volume is very high the person to whom you are speaking, they hear an echo because the speakers makes the sound and the sound goes back into the mic). Don't set volume all the way up.
8. Top pick out of the t-mobile free phones.

Threw my Motorola v300 away. Bought this one after reading reviews. Boots up faster, better reception, better battery life and the data cable for internet access charges at the same time!
I'm sure it doesn't have all the fancy junk that I don't use but thats ok-I just want it to work.
Skip the Motorola headaches and buy this phone instead.

Mine has great reception. I suspect the poor connection problems others have reported have more to do with with cell tower availability than with the phone.

I use the camera daily during my property evaluations and thus end up with a pretty high volume of photos. I avoided the T-Mobile picture messaging charges by connecting the phone directly to my computer with a data cable I won on Ebay for only $0.98 plus shipping. Here's the Ebay listing:

FOR Samsung E315 E316 E317 D415 x427 Data Cable+CD+More

I then downloaded a free e315 data handling program from the Samsung web site. The program is:

Samsung PC Studio II PIMS & File Manager

I connect the cable to my USB port, fire up the program and download the photos into my computer.

By the way, Samsung sells the cable and software as a kit but they charge $80.

Before you read this review I think I should mention that this was my first cell phone (can't believe I waited this long) and that I got it for free from the official T-mobile.com website (great promotion for new service) - so I may be a little more euphoric than normal!
But I did spend a lot of time reviewing different phones before making my decision which was also influenced by T-mobile's great family plans. The other reviews on Amazon were very good, helpful and quite on the mark.

Regarding the shutter sound - yes it is very loud by default, but you CAN reduce it. There's no documentation on this. Quite by accident I reduced the "key volume" and the shutter sound was reduced as well. To reduce the "key volume" - get to 'idle' state and then simply use the volume keys on the left side of the phone to adjust the "key volume". The shutter sound changes accordingly - Samsung really should have mentioned this somewhere.

Now getting back to the phone itself - it's really more than adequate for a first timer like myself. It took me a little while to get used to everything, but then again this was my first phone ever. Now, just about a week later, I feel very comfortable using the phone - so I guess that speaks well about how intuitive the phone is.
Rather than go into more details, I think I'll summarize the good and the bad of this phone. Also, I bought the Samsung e105 for my wife and I think it'll be useful to compare features below where applicable.
Cons:
1) 'Special' earphone jack - not your standard earphone jack. So if you need a new earphone set, you'll have to buy from Samsung. They should tell you things like this in the phone details, but they just don't.
Note: The Samsung e105 has a standard earphone jack.

2) Ring tones - the default ones that come with the phone are quite terrible. The only one I liked was the default 'Tmobile jingle', but of course my wife wanted that for her phone as well and so I had to choose some other wierd tune (to distinguish between the two phones).
Note: The Samsung e105 actually has a different set of ring tones that come with the phone, and some are much nicer (in my opinion) - I'm trying to get my wife to switch to one of those!

3) No infrared port - I'm not exactly sure what you use this for (I think to talk to a computer). But the Samsung e105 has this feature.

That's about it for the cons.

Pros:
1) Auto time update: You can set the time/date manually, or have it automatically set according the region you're in. There's also an 'autoupdate with confirmation' in which case it'll ask you first before setting the time.
Note: The Samsung e105 does NOT have autoupdate, you have to set the time manually.

2) Lots of memory on the phone. Also there are various 'memory statuses' on the different portions of the phone. E.g. you have a separate memory status for each of the following: a)Pictures/Video b)Voice memos c)General stuff (like phone no.s, to-do list, etc.)
It's nice that at different menus, you can check the memory status for the particular menu you're on (like those listed above) - the Samsung e105 has only ONE memory status for the entire phone.

3) Great camera - you can also record small movies (obviously not very high quality). Lots of fun!

4) Very nice small and sleek design.

Actually I could go on listing all the nice features, but these are available in the general description of the item.

Neutral observations:
1) The battery life seemed quite adequate - I went about 6 days without charging my phone (just as a test to see how long I could go without charging the phone and still leaving it in standby mode, not powered off - I also used the phone for minimal conversation during this time). This seems to be in-line with the specs.
2) There's a special 'data kit' that you would need to buy if you want the phone to talk with a computer (the kit contains a special cable and special software). I'm not sure if you could use this method to download the pictures/videos from the phone to the computer (without paying for T-mobile service).

Summary: I may have been easily pleased, but in my opinion this phone is really neat. I highly recommend getting it, especially if it's at a great price.